What is creativity?

I used to think of myself as being a fairly creative guy, in terms of problem solving and technology, but that belief has faded over the past decade as the world has gradually changed. Just today I was reading an article in the New York Times by Shaila Dewan entitled "Cities Compete in Hipness Battle to Attract Young" and it reminded me again about how distant I now feel from "being creative." I've never been creative in the artistic sense, but now I experience virtually no sense of being creative in any sense. I despise "stories" and other forms of "creative" narratives, not to mention the "creativity" of so many (all?) of our politicians and marketing campaigns. Even mainstream news "stories" are far too "creative" for my taste.

Dewan's article was more about artistic creativity and marketing and "hipness" and being "young" and "social capital" and "vitality" and all of that, but nonetheless it raises the question of the nature of creativity that people find to be of such value.

These days, I'm not even sure how I would define creativity, other than to define myself in terms of the absence of creativity.

I do know with great certainty that a key aspect of the "creativity" that both artisitic and marketing types find of great value is the concept of "being in touch" with the target audience. It is a great concept, but also a quality that I distinctly lack. I am unable to point to a single audience or target demographic in which I can claim that I am "in touch." It is nonetheless a concept that I can easily and readily acknowledge as being of great value to society and wish that I could aspire to, but it also feels way beyond my personal grasp.

Who knows, maybe I am a lot better off without being "creative" or "in touch." If so, I am not sure that I have even begun to fathom how that works.

Here is to the creative people out there. Without them, the world would be a lot more boring.

I saw a movie today, The Fountain, and found it rather fascinating, captivating, and even entertaining. I gather that a lot of people did not like the movie at all, in a very viscerally negative way. I found its surrealism very intriguing. In short, I thought that it was extremely creative. What? Oh... you're kidding me... there is actually such a thing as too much creativity? Seems so. Oh well. That's the difficulty with me being so out of touch with all of the common demographics.

Maybe what most people consider creativity is simply a story that makes them feel good and reaffirms their existing biases and frees them from having to think. And, most importantly, a believable story.

To me, "being believable" is the opposite of "being creative", but as I say, what do I know about creativity.

-- Jack Krupansky